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John Murray of San Francisco pulls a "Save the Gold Dust Lounge" t-shirt on during last week's public hearing on the matter at the Historic Preservation Commission in City Hall. Photo: The Chronicle

The ongoing saga of the Gold Dust Lounge continues in full force. Last week, the Historic Preservation Commission postponed a decision on the bar’s landmark proposal. With time running out until the March 10 eviction date, the Bovis family filed a lawsuit this morning against Handlery Hotels and its associates.

The lawsuit begins in dramatic fashion: “This case can be summarized in two words — greed and deceit…” The complete lawsuit document can be read in its entirety by clicking here.

The individual plaintiffs — brothers James and Tasios Bovis — claim six major complaints:

Intentional Misrepresentation

Breach of the Covenant of Good Faith and Fair Dealing

Violation of Business and Professions Code 17200

Breach of Contract

Elder Abuse

Injunctive Relief

The suit goes beyond preserving the bar itself, according to attorney Justin Berger, who is representing the Bovises along with Joseph Cotchett and Anne Marie Murphy of Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy LLP.

“The lawsuit is not just about saving the Gold Dust, but also about protecting small business — and especially small business owned by senior citizens,” Berger tells Scoop.

“What’s alleged in the complaint is a pattern of deception by Handlery Hotels against Tasios and James Bovis, both who are in their 80s.”

The lawsuit alleges that Handlery Hotels and its representatives “gradually snuck in” shorter and shorter termination clauses into the lease over the years, while representing to the Bovises that there were no material changes to the lease. It also claims that the Bovises were used to trusting and dealing with the prior generation of Gold Dust landlords, the elder Handlery and his “upstanding” property manager, who reportedly reviewed and discussed any lease changes.

Furthermore, the suit also alleges an “attempt to intimidate elderly citizens to refrain from protecting rights.” The suit claims that Handlery has tried to intimidate the Bovises into accepting the eviction notice without a fight, by threatening the lease at Lefty O’Doul’s — the bar also owned by the Bovises and leased from Handlery.

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Sam Singer, spokesman for the Handlery family, says the lawsuit was expected, and is a misguided move.

“The lawsuit is straight from the Twilight Zone and is an irresponsible misuse of the judicial system,” says Singer. “This is a genuinely bizarre attempt to generate publicity.”

He adds: “The Gold Dust knows their lease is up … The way these [situations] always end is the tenant moves out, because they signed the lease and they made the agreement.”

So what’s next? Handlery will be served today or tomorrow and then the litigation will begin, with the hope of getting an injunction. However, with the March 10 date looming, the Gold Dust is feeling the time crunch.

“We need to act quickly,” says Berger. “We’ve always been open to resolution and still remain open to resolution but since time is so short, we can’t hold our breath. We have to move forward on litigation.”